


Let's Live For Today

by lost_lunar_wolf



Series: Sp00ky Season [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Awesome Pepper Potts, Babysitting, Everyone is doing whumptober and I'm here to give you the happy stuff, Fluff, Gen, Howard Stark's Bad Parenting, Hurt/Comfort, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, Kid Tony Stark, People always have something against Tony for some reason, Pepper Potts Is a Good Bro, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter and Rhodey are Babysitters for the Day, Peter doesn't understand children, Potions, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Peter Parker, Tony Stark Gets De-aged, Tony Stark Loves Cheese Burgers, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, only a little
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:47:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26786938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lost_lunar_wolf/pseuds/lost_lunar_wolf
Summary: “It’s too early for this shit.”  Peter mumbled as he rubbed his eyes to be sure he was seeing this right.  “Okay.  Please tell me I’m not in the room I think I’m in and Mr. Stark has a secret child that I don’t know about and that isn’t Tony Stark as a child sitting on that bed in a tiny version of the clothes Mr. Stark was wearing before bed.”“My dad won’t pay ransom.”  Was the first thing the child said, his voice muffled from his mouth being tightly pressed against his knees and whatever Peter had said, the child didn’t pay any attention to it.Peter definitely didn’t hear that right.  Tony’s dad won’t pay ransom?  What?  Has this happened before?  “I’m sorry.  What?”ORAfter an unknowing run in with a sorcerer Tony gets de-aged into a 6 year old.  And Peter not know anything about children, especially genius children, calls Rhodey for back up.  Because if anyone knows how to handle Tony Stark as a child, it would be Rhodey.  That's how they find themselves spending the day with a 6 year old Tony Stark
Relationships: James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark (mentioned), Peter Parker & James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Peter Parker & Stephen Strange, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Sp00ky Season [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1950130
Comments: 16
Kudos: 358
Collections: Tony Stark Has A Heart (deal with it)





	Let's Live For Today

**Author's Note:**

> Welp here this is, another fluffy fic to end your whumptober days on a happy note. My original plan for this was going to be about 1000 words, then last night around 9:30 I got this idea and here we are about 7000 words and 24 hours later. Anyway the prompt for today is Potions! I had stupid moment when writing this and I decided to keep it in because I feel like my stupidity would be enjoyed, but don't worry they realize they were being stupid. I'd also like to thank my friend from school who beta read about 4000 words of this (because that's all I had done when I started writing in class) while I braided her hair. And once again an apology for this being a little dialogue heavy but it's getting better! I hope you all enjoy! Oh one more thing there is very brief mentions of kidnapping, but it's brushed over pretty fast.

“And that’s why  _ Back To The Future _ is the best movie ever made.” Peter finished rambling with some hand gestures added in. “Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.”

“You know what kid, I’ll hand it to you, you make some valid points there, I’ll give it to you  _ Back To The Future _ is the best movie ever made.” Tony agreed. “But I have one question. Why would- FUCK.”

Tony stood shocked on the sidewalk looking down at his now soaking wet and soon to be sticky clothes. They were absolutely drenched in god who knows what, but he could feel the cold wetness seeping through the clothes onto his skin. He looked up to where he could hear someone spitting out rapid apologies, as Tony tried to keep his face calm.

“Oh my god, I’m so so sorry.” The man said, trying to get closer to Tony with a handful of napkins. “I wasn’t watching where I was going. I’m so sorry. That was completely my fault. I’m-”

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Tony cut him off backing away slightly not wanting any sort of physical contact with this stranger. He shook his hands trying to get some of the liquid off his jacket. “Just what was that so I know how to get it out.”

“It was Fanta. God I’m so sorry that’s going to be a nightmare to get out. How much do I need to give you-”

“Nothing.” Tony said cutting the person off once again. “I told you, not a big deal. It’s fine.” He took a deep breath as he felt a tap on his shoulder and he turned to face Peter who had a slightly alarmed look on his face. “Lets go buddy Pep is gonna be pissed if we’re late.”

Tony hoped that Peter would pick up on the lie so they could get out of here. Peter looked confused for a flash of a second before nodding his head to agree. “Yeah I don’t like when Ms. Potts gets mad at us for being late, lets go.”

Tony put a hand between Peter's shoulder blades to lead him away from the situation. The guy who spilled the drink kept trying to apologize, and Tony paused turning back around for a second. 

“Man, look seriously, it’s not a big deal, here.” Tony took his wallet out of his pocket and pulled out a $10 bill handing it over to the guy. “Just get yourself another drink I promise it’s not a big deal it’ll come out.”

The guy tried to protest even more now, but Tony just walked away with Peter next to him. He could tell that Peter was walking a bit faster than normal, so he picked up his pace slightly so he could keep up. When they were about two blocks away from where the incident happened Peter spoke.

“Something doesn’t feel right Mr. Stark.” Peter said scanning the area around them.

“What do you mean?” Tony asked.

They kept their fast pace as they talked and Tony felt slightly better the closer they got to the tower.

“Ever since that guy ran into you my spider sense has been going off.” Peter explained.

Tony couldn’t hold back a small snort. “You mean your Peter Tingle?”

“Oh my god not you too.” Peter complained, throwing his head back in annoyance. “I’m being serious though, something's off.”

“Do you think someone is following us?”

“No it’s not that I would know if it was that. But something about that whole interaction was off Mr. Stark. He didn’t once mention the fact that you’re Tony Stark, I’m not saying everyone would, but it’s just- it’s weird when someone doesn’t.” Peter sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know, maybe I’m just overreacting.”

“I don’t know what to tell you bud because I can’t feel what you’re feeling, but we’ll keep an eye on everything, okay?”

“Yeah okay.”

The rest of the walk to the Tower, Tony could tell that Peter was on high alert. For one the kid had stopped his rambling (which Tony would only admit this once that he missed), and he was constantly scanning the area, looking behind them every few seconds, and hyper focusing his vision on every alleyway they passed. It was almost alarming how much Peter seemed to be on edge, alarming enough that it made Tony a bit more observant.

Soon enough they arrived at the Tower and headed straight for the elevator to go up to the penthouse. When they got in the elevator Peter seemed to have calmed down a little bit, but was still on edge.

“What did the guy say he spilled again?” Peter asked, speaking for the first time since the initial few blocks after.

“I think Fanta. Why?”

“Can I?” Peter gestured to Tony’s sleeve that still had a dark spot that wasn’t completely dry on it. 

Tony obliged and held out his arm for Peter. Peter grabbed his arm feeling the stain and smelled it before pulling away quickly. 

“Something wrong?” Tony asked, confused by the kids actions.

“I forgot that spiders don’t like oranges.” Peter said as he turned away coughing.

“Weird question kid, didn’t you have Orange Fanta a few weeks ago at that gala?”

Peter held up his hand as if saying one second as he finished his coughing fit. He took a deep breath and cleared his throat. 

“Yeah, I did, which is why I don’t understand why that happened.” Peter said before clearing his throat once again. “Whatever that is Mr. Stark I don’t think it’s real Fanta.”

“We’ll have FRIDAY test it in the lab. Let’s go get changed, then we’ll head down to the lab.”

***

When Tony and Peter arrived in the lab the first thing they did was have FRIDAY run an analysis of the jacket Tony was wearing.

“It appears, boss, that the substance on your jacket seemed to be Orange Fanta.” FRIDAY said when the analysis was finished.

“I’m not saying FRIDAY is wrong Mr. Stark, but my gut says it’s not right.” Peter said. “Is it still damp?”

“Yeah a little bit.” Tony answered. “There’s enough to get at least a drop or two of it if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Can you try to get a little bit of it on to something sterile ish? I’m gonna run to Bruce’s lab to grab a few things.” Peter said before running out of the lab.

Tony grabbed a petri dish (that he didn’t know he had) and managed to get a few drops of the liquid into it while waiting for Peter to come back. A few minutes later Peter rushed into the lab with a microscope and a bag of, if Tony had to guess, supplies to prepare a microscope slide.

“Okay.” Peter began as he set the microscope and bag onto one of the work tables. “Can you please bring that over here?”

Peter pointed to the petri dish with the liquid in it and Tony brought it over to the kid while said kid plugged in the microscope and pulled out the blank slides. 

“Not that I don’t have faith in your ability, but you know how to make a microscope slide right?” Tony asked while helping Peter prepare the rest of the supplies.

“I think so. It’s just distilled water, sample, then cover slide, right?”

“Yeah that’s right.” Tony agreed.

In all honesty, Tony was actually slightly fuzzy on how to prepare a microscope slide. Not that he hadn’t done it before, but it had been years since he did it last, and stuff like this is more of Bruce’s thing not his. But what Peter said sounded right, so FRIDAY would probably correct them if they were wrong.

A few seconds later Peter had finished preparing the slide and was already working on focusing the microscope. 

“See anything kid?”

“It just looks normal. Well okay, I guess as normal as Fanta is gonna look under here.”

There were a few moments of silence while Peter looked through the higher power lens and Tony thought about what they could possibly be looking for. It would need to be a change in the- oh- oh yeah okay this wasn’t gonna work.

“Hey kid, I just realized something.” Tony started. He honestly felt a bit stupid now. “We don’t have a strong enough microscope for what we need.”

Peter stood back from the microscope with a questioning look. “But- oh… yeah… that’s uh… are we stupid?” Peter asked, and Tony had to hold back a laugh.

“No, but the fact that we need to look at molecules here, and not cells, didn’t cross my mind. Or yours. Or FRIDAY’s for that matter.”

“Actually boss-” FRIDAY spoke up, but Tony was quick to cut her off.

“Shut up FRI you just wanted to see us look stupid.” 

“I cannot confirm or deny that statement.” FRIDAY said.

“See what I mean kid.” Tony shot a look into one of the many cameras in the room. “But FRIDAY did run another scan for any changes in the molecular structure of Fanta. Right FRI?”

“That I can confirm. The results showed that there was no change, to my knowledge, of the molecular structure.”

“See kiddo. I think it’s okay. How’s your spider sense?”

“It’s dulled down a lot but it’s still there. You’re right though it probably is nothing, just overreacting or something.”

“How about a movie night?” Tony asked, and before Peter could even ask what movie he added. “We can even watch the best movie ever made.”

***

When Tony woke up in the morning something felt off. His bed felt way too big, and he didn’t feel as groggy as normal. He opened his eyes and immediately knew this wasn’t right, so he did the first thing his instincts told him, he screamed as loud as he could and curled up in a tight ball immediately regretting his decision to scream, he was alway told not to scream.

***

Being woken up to an extremely high pitched scream was not how Peter expected to be woken up. He was out of bed in an instant, sprinting to where the scream came from. When he opened the door to Tony’s room (which why a child's voice was coming from Tony’s room he wasn’t sure) he paused staring, his eyes widening- yeah okay this was not what he was ready for.

“It’s too early for this shit.” Peter mumbled as he rubbed his eyes to be sure he was seeing this right. “Okay. Please tell me I’m not in the room I think I’m in and Mr. Stark has a secret child that I don’t know about and that isn’t Tony Stark as a child sitting on that bed in a tiny version of the clothes Mr. Stark was wearing before bed.”

“My dad won’t pay ransom.” Was the first thing the child said, his voice muffled from his mouth being tightly pressed against his knees and whatever Peter had said, the child didn’t pay any attention to it.

Peter definitely didn’t hear that right. Tony’s dad won’t pay ransom? What? Has this happened before? “I’m sorry. What?”

“My dad.” The child repeated a little clearer this time. “He won’t pay anything if that’s what you wanted. He said he wouldn’t pay again.”

Howard Stark might be dead, but Peter was gonna kill that son of a bitch. He would find a way to do it himself. There is no fucking way he would ever stand by to let someone treat a child like this.

“Tony?” Peter asked as he slowly stepped into the room making sure to keep the door open.

Tony’s little eyes hesitantly looked up at Peter as he tried to make himself smaller the closer Peter got. Peter noticed this, stopped walking and held up his hands in surrender. 

“Hey bud, I’m not gonna hurt you.” Peter said not moving from his spot a few feet away from the bed.

“That’s what they always say, but then they do.” Tony said, and his little voice sounded so broken and scared.

“I’m not them okay? I promise I don’t want to hurt you, and I’ll never let them hurt you again.” Peter said. He had to try to not let the anger seep into his voice. Yeah there were a lot of people who were gonna pay very soon. “Are you hungry?”

Tony didn’t move or say anything so Peter tried something else.

“Right okay, dumb question, I’m sorry. Your name is Tony right?” This got him a nod in response from the kid. “Hi Tony, my name is Peter. How about we go to the kitchen so I can make us some breakfast. Does that sound okay?”

“I can kill you, you know.” Tony mumbled. 

The only reason Peter was able to hear it was because of his enhanced hearing and that phrase did not sound right coming out a child's mouth, but okay it was Tony Stark so it wasn’t all too surprising, in a way, except for the fact the Tony was a child, and okay yeah it didn’t even sound right coming from child Tony Stark.

“You probably could.” Peter answered unsure of what else to say. Tony was clearly shocked by the fact that Peter heard him. “But I’m not going to hurt you. I can absolutely promise you that. So I’ll ask again, are you hungry?”

For a few seconds Peter thought that Tony wasn’t going to move or respond, but then the kid lifted his head a little and spoke.

“How do I know you aren’t trying to hurt me?” He asked, and Peter’s heart broke hearing the amount of fear in his voice.

“I guess you don’t really.” Peter responded honestly. “But you have my word that I will not hurt you or touch you in anyway unless you give the okay. That goes for something even as small as a pat on the head. And if I try to in any way, whether it’s an accident or on purpose, you have full permission to hit me as hard as you can.”

Peter could see the gears turning in little Tony’s head before he nodded and slowly moved to get off the bed, taking extremely cautious steps towards Peter when he did so. When he was standing next to Peter, well as close as he was gonna get, Peter concluded, which was about a good 8 to 12 inches away, Peter spoke.

“We’re gonna walk to the kitchen okay? We are going to walk out this door, take a right and we’ll basically walk into the kitchen. The living room will be to the left and the kitchen is to the right. Sound good?” Peter asked when he was done explaining. 

He hoped that by explaining everything step by step, it would help Tony be less afraid and more apt to opening up. The fact that the first thing Tony assumed was that he was kidnapped, well that made Peter’s blood boil, and what pissed him off more, was that this (well not exactly this, kidnapping) had clearly happened before.

Peter pulled himself out of his thoughts when Tony gave the nod of approval, and he began walking to the kitchen. Tony stayed behind him the entire time, keeping his eyes on the ground as he walked. When they reached the kitchen, Peter gestured to the bar stools as he walked to the other side of the island.

“You can sit there if you want. Or at the table. It doesn’t matter.” Peter said.

He watched as Tony took a hesitant glance at him, then the barstools, then slowly walked over to the barstools and attempted to get up, but was clearly struggling.

“Do you need help?” Peter asked.

“No I got it.” Tony replied.

Peter had to stifle back a chucked at the determination in Tony’s voice. A few seconds later Tony did manage to get on the barstool and was sitting on his knees resting his hands on the counter.

“What do you want to eat?” Peter asked.

“Anything is fine, Sir.” Tony replied. 

“Nope, my name is Peter okay? I’m not old enough to be called sir, not today.” Peter said dragging a hand down his face. “God now I know how you must feel.”

“Hmm?” Tony questioned.

“Nothing. Just call me Peter okay? Do you like eggs?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay I’ll make you some eggs.”

Peter quickly pulled out the stuff to make eggs and toast and turned on the burner to heat up the pan before putting the bread in the toaster then cracked an egg into a bowl. He quickly added some salt and pepper before whisking them with a fork. 

“How old are you?” Peter asked while pouring the whisked eggs into the pan.

“6.” Tony mumbled.

“Weird question, but have you built a V8 engine by a chance?”

“I finished a few weeks ago.” The kid said.

“Can I just say that is so cool.” Peter said while scrambling the eggs with a spatula. “Mr- my mentor actually just taught me how to build one a few weeks ago, but I bet you could still do it better than me.”

“I don’t think so.” Tony said, his voice going smaller again.

“Why do you say that?” Peter asked, while putting the toast onto a plate to butter it.

“My dad said it wasn’t good enough. So I was gonna redo it.”

“Well your dad is an asshole.” Peter said before he could stop himself. “Shit um crap um sorry I didn’t just say that. He’s not an asshole, that was mean.”

“It’s okay.” Tony said. “Jarvis tells him to stop being an ass all the time.”

“Tony no don’t repeat that word. Ms. Potts would have my head if she found out you said that.” Peter said while putting the eggs on the toast. “Oh my god Ms. Potts. I forgot about Ms. Potts. Here kid.” Peter placed the plate along with a fork in front of Tony. “I need to make a phone call really fast. I’ll be right back.”

Peter walked quickly out of the kitchen and to his room to grab his phone immediately calling Pepper.

“Peter it’s midnight here, not that I don’t love talking to you, but why are you calling?” Pepper said, and shit Peter forgot she was in Seoul for an SI trip.

“I’m so sorry for calling, I totally forgot, but it’s kind of an emergency. I don’t think you’ll have to come home, but I don’t know what to do.” Peter said, having to stop himself from rambling.

“If Tony won’t go to bed then use force if you have to.” 

“No it’s not that. Um I don’t even know what really happened, but I woke up and Tony is a 6 year old.” Peter attempted to explain.

“Peter you should know he always acts like he’s 5. Just get him some food and water and he should go back to normal.” Pepper said.

“No, no I know that, but I mean he’s actually 6. Like a preschooler, like a little tiny ass Tony Stark, like Tony Stark that just built a V8 engine a few weeks ago, like Tony Stark who apparently has been kidnapped at least once before the age of 6, like who thinks his dad is still alive and so is Jarvis.” Peter said with a wince.

“So, he’s actually 6. My fiancee is a  _ literal _ 6 year old right now?” 

“Yeah that- that would be correct. Yeah.”

Pepper let out a frustrated groan. “I can’t be in New York for at least 17 hours, but I’ll try to get back as soon as I can.” Pepper said. “Is May still in Florida for her girls trip?” 

“Yeah she doesn’t get back until next Friday.” Peter said as he started to pace the room. “I don’t even know what happened, everything was fine last night then he just woke up like this.”

“Did something happen yesterday?” Pepper asked.

“No I don’t think- no no no wait wait, um after dinner yesterday we were walking home and some guy spilled a Fanta all over Mr. Stark and after that my spider sense kept going off but we couldn’t find anything wrong except that the Fanta smelled a lot more citrusy than normal. We had FRIDAY run tests on it and she said that everything was fine though.”

“Try calling Dr. Strange and see it was some sort of magic?” Pepper questioned. “I don’t know what else to tell you right now, except try calling Rhodey. He should have some idea of how to handle him. Look I’m really tired right now and I probably couldn’t even have a plane ready until morning, so if this isn’t solved by the end of the day just let me know and I’ll come home.”

“Yeah okay I’ll go call Uncle Rhodey and Dr. Strange.” Peter said, taking a deep breath. “God I feel so stupid because I knew something was off but we just left it.”

“Peter.” Pepper cut him off before he could go into another ramble. “You didn’t know, there was nothing else you could do. I’ll see if I can maybe get a hold of Dr. Cho because I know she’s in Seoul right now, to see if we can do anything from here. In the meantime try to get a hold of Dr. Strange and see if you guys can figure this out, and keep Tony out of trouble.”

“I will. Thank Ms. Potts.”

“Of course Peter.”

Peter hung up the phone and ran a hand down his face. This was gonna be a long day. He made his way back to the kitchen, giving FRIDAY instructions of what to say to Dr. Strange. Rhodey had just answered the phone when Peter got to the kitchen.

“Shit. Oh my god. Tony!” Peter yelled because Tony was not where Peter left him.

“Peter what’s going on?” Rhodey asked frantically.

“Mr. Stark got turned into a 6 year old and now he’s missing!” Peter explained as he rushed around the kitchen looking for Tony.

“Check the living room, he is probably taking something apart.” Rhodey said, and Peter had no idea how he was staying so calm right now.

But he listened and ran into the living room and let out a breath of relief when he saw Tony on the couch dismantling the remote. 

“Rhodey you’re a genius!” Peter said making his way over to Tony. “You scared me Tony, try not to do that okay?”

Tony looked up from the remote and said. “I’m sorry.” Then went right back to dismantling it.

“Wait, that voice was Tony’s?” Rhodey asked. “I thought you meant he was acting like he was 6, not an actual 6 year old. Why am I not surprised.” Rhodey mumbled and let out sigh. “Do you need help with him?”

“If you don’t mind yeah. He doesn’t seem like he’ll be trouble, but I don’t understand kids Uncle Rhodey.”

“Give me like 20 minutes kiddo, I’ll be there.”

“Thank you.”

Peter hung up the phone and took another glance at Tony who was now taking apart the insides of the remote.

“Do you want something better to work on?” Peter asked, because a remote couldn’t have been the fun to work with. Especially considering his Tony had taken it apart and did who knows what with it within the first 10 minutes of getting it. 

Tony hesitantly looked up at Peter with a questioning glance. “Like what?”

***

The look on Tony’s face when they walked into the lab was absolutely priceless. He looked up at Peter with wide eyes then looked back into the lab.

“You work in here?” He asked clearly in awe of all the equipment.

It made sense to Peter that Tony would be this much in shock. The last lab Tony probably saw at this age was his dad’s and that was in the 1970s it was about 40 years later now. Technology has changed a lot since then. Peter didn’t really know how much, considering he wasn’t alive then, but still he knew there had been a lot of advancements.

“Something like that.” Peter answered taking a few steps further into the lab. “We have to be really careful here because there are a lot of dangerous things. How about you go sit on the workbench and I’ll grab something for you to work on?”

Though he looked like he was about to protest Tony agreed and walked over to sit on the workbench. Peter took another glance at the kid before going into the storage room and grabbed a box labeled 1986. Tony (well older Tony) had showed him this room a few weeks ago when they both couldn’t sleep. It was full of a bunch of unfinished projects of Tony’s when he was a kid, and if Tony couldn’t sleep and couldn’t focus on his current project, he would come in here and grab something random to work on.

“Here you go.” Peter said setting the box down on the table near Tony. “You can pick whatever you want from here and if you need anything let me know and I’ll grab it for you.”

“Thank you.” Tony said, already digging through the box.

Peter sat down at the other end of the workbench and opened up his phone. Doctor Strange still hadn’t gotten back to him, which okay it really only had been about 20 or so minutes since FRIDAY had reached out, but still. He pulled up the number FRIDAY had added to his phone and dialed it. While it rang Peter remembered that Rhodey was supposed to be here soon and quickly warned Tony of the incoming person.

“Tony, my Uncle Rhodey is coming, so when he comes in here don’t freak out okay?”

The only response he got was a nod as Tony was too engrossed in his new project to give more of a response.

Peter let out a breath when he heard a click on the other end of the phone signaling that Doctor Strange had picked up.

“Hello?” 

“Hi Doctor Strange, it's Peter. Um we have a bit of an emergency.” Peter said and took Strange’s silence as a request to continue. “Tony kind of got turned into a 6 year old and we aren’t really sure what happened.”

“And why do you need me?” Strange asked.

“Because we couldn’t find anything wrong on the science side so I thought that maybe it was magic or something.” He explained.

“First of all it’s sorcery not magic. But I might be able to help. Do you know what may have caused it.”

“The only thing I can think of was some guy spilled a drink on Mr. Stark on our way home yesterday, but FRIDAY couldn’t find anything wrong with it when we ran tests.” 

He heard the lab doors open and Rhodey walked in making his way towards him and Tony. Peter waved as he listened to Doctor Strange.

“There’s a good chance that was the cause of it.” Strange theorized. “What did it smell like?”

“It was really citrusy like not a normal amount for the type of soda the guy said it was.”

“My guess would be a potion of some sort. If you still have a sample I’ll come by to grab it and put together an antidote.”

“Yeah I have it here in the lab.”

“Okay, I’ll be over in a few minutes.”

“Thank you Doctor Strange.” Peter said and Strange hung up. “Wow that was rude. Anyways hi Uncle Rhodey!”

Peter got up to give Rhodey a hug then gestured to Tony who was still working on his project. If Peter had to guess, Tony didn’t even realize someone else had come into the lab.

“This is Tony. Tony can you say hi to Rhodey?” Peter asked and Tony looked up, locked eyes with Rhodey for a second, waved then went right back to his project.

“He’s uh not that talkative.” Peter explained.

“Of course child Tony doesn’t talk.” Rhodey mumbled under his breath. “Hi Tony.”

Peter went to say something else when he saw an orange portal open up and Dr. Strange stepped through. That caused Tony to look up.

“Whoa.” Tony said in awe with wide eyes looking at the portal.

“The sample is right over there.” Peter said and pointed to the petri dish he and Tony got the night before on one of the other tables.

“Thanks. Give me a few hours.” Doctor Strange said and grabbed the sample before leaving and closing the portal behind him.

Okay then, that happened. Peter looked at Rhodey who was shaking his head at Tony who was still staring wide eyed where the portal was.

“What was that?” Tony exclaimed, snapping his head to the side to look at Peter and Rhodey. 

“That was Doctor Strange he’s the one who’s gonna make the thing to make you big again.” Peter said.

“Make me big again?” Tony questioned.

“You didn’t tell him?” Rhodey asked.

“I’m gonna be honest it didn’t cross my mind considering the first thing he said to me was that his dad wasn’t gonna pay ransom.” Peter said, putting his hands up in defense.

“And now I’m going to punch Howard again.” Rhodey growled.

“Don’t worry I’m going with you.” Peter said then turned to Tony. “Yes, make you big again. You’re actually 47 and the year is 2017. Some mean dude splashed a potion on you which turned you into a 6 year old.” 

“Whoa I’m old.” Tony whispered and Peter and Rhodey both chuckled.

Of course that was Tony’s only reaction. Why freak out over the fact you are actually 41 years older than you look right now when you can dwell on the fact that you're old. But of course that was something only Tony would do. 

“Yes you’re old.” Rhodey said. “How about we do something instead of staying in the lab the entire day?”

“I’m down with that.” Peter said and looked at Tony. “Does that sound good?”

Tony looked like he wanted to protest, but agreed with a nod and got off the workbench, following Peter and Rhodey to the elevator. 

***

After changing into more appropriate clothes (well Peter at least, Rhodey was already ready, and they didn’t have any other clothes that were Tony’s size besides the ones that shrunk down with him) they decided to go walk around and have a picnic at Central Park. They made sure to take the back exit from the tower to ensure that the paparazzi didn’t get any wind of the situation and so far they didn’t seem to be having any problems. Luckily Peter had his spider sense to tell them if anything was off.

“Tony can I hold your hand while we walk?” Peter asked, trying to make sure he kept the promise he made to Tony earlier in the day. “I want to make sure you stay safe.”

Honestly Peter was expecting Tony to say no, so when Tony nodded and held out his hand for Peter to grab, it took him by surprise. 

The entire walk to the park Peter and Rhodey tried to get Tony to talk, but so far neither of them had any luck besides one or two word answers. That is until Rhodey asked about what Tony’s latest project was, and after that, they couldn’t get Tony to stop talking about it. He rambled on and on about how he was working on making a projection of stars, but would be able to project the star field of any location he wanted. At one point even Peter started getting lost with what Tony was talking about because he was talking so fast and didn’t seem to be slowing down one bit. It was to the point Peter wasn’t even sure if Tony was breathing. And finally when he was done rambling about his project he looked up at Peter and Rhodey with wide eyes asking what their opinion on it was.

“That sounds amazing Tony!” Peter said grinning at the kid.

“I think that sounds really cool Tony!” Rhodey said with a bright smile on his face. “Do you want me to tell you something funny that older you designed one time?”

“Yes please!” Tony blurted before he could stop himself then instantly added. “I mean if that’s okay Mr. Rhodey.”

Rhodey just smiled and chuckled at his response. “When you were about 16, we were living in the same dorm room. One night around like 3am you busted into the room, waking me up in the process, then proceeded to design an entire airplane on one of the white boards we had, then passed out on the floor the second you finished. I was extremely confused, but it was funny seeing you in the morning not remembering any of it.”

“I designed an airplane?” Tony asked. “That’s so cool! Did I design any other cool things?”

Peter saw Rhodey shoot him a look that clearly said to not tell him about Iron Man.

“Yeah you have.” Peter said as they walked towards a playground in the park. “You successfully miniaturized the arc reactor and now it’s used as a clean energy source.”

“Really? My dad said that couldn’t be done.” Tony stated as they sat down under a tree.

“Well there has been a lot of technological advancements within the last few decades that allowed you to achieve it.”

And that’s how they spent a good majority of the day, telling Tony about some of his greater achievements excluding Iron Man. At one point Tony wanted to go play on the playground so Peter went with him while Rhodey watched from a bench, and Peter could see he was taking pictures of them almost the entire time. And if Peter had to guess many of those pictures were being sent to Pepper.

Tony was surprisingly good at the monkey bars with a little help from Peter to make sure he didn’t fall (even though Tony insisted he could do it by himself) but eventually the kid gave in to letting Peter at least hold him a little bit. When Tony found out just how strong Peter was (Tony had asked him to do a pull up) he asked Peter to give him a piggyback ride, which then quickly turned into Peter holding Tony on his stomach above his head so Tony could pretend he was flying. (Peter made sure that Rhodey got pictures and videos of that because he had never heard Tony laugh so much in his life). 

About an hour or so later Rhodey came over to get them for lunch and Tony practically begged Peter to give him a piggyback ride while they walked. He couldn’t say no to Tony’s puppy dog eyes, they were lethal.

“Uncle Rhodey, are his puppy dog eyes this convincing when he’s an adult?” Peter asked because honestly he knew Tony could have puppy dog eyes, but Pepper was immune to them so he didn’t see it often.

“They used to be.” Rhodey admitted. “But now for the most part I can resist them. But I will say I definitely couldn’t say no to him now.”

“What do you want to eat Tony?” Peter asked while they walked towards where he knew some restaurants and food carts were.

“Can we please get cheese burgers?” Tony asked which made both Rhodey and Peter laugh. “Why are you guys laughing?”

“Because older you would’ve said the same thing.” Rhodey said giving Tony a pat on the head. “Of course we can get cheese burgers.”

They quickly found a cafe that had burgers per Tony’s request and sat out on the patio seating that was available. They all ended up getting cheese burgers and waters, and when Tony very politely asked for an apple juice neither Peter or Rhodey could say no.

After lunch the three of them walked around for a bit longer taking pictures at spots that Tony found intriguing. (Peter and Rhodey took other pictures besides those, when Tony wasn’t looking of course). It wasn’t until about an hour or two after lunch when Peter got a call from Doctor Strange saying he could be at the tower in an hour with the antidote that they decided to head home.

***

When they got back from the park, Peter could tell that Tony was close to falling asleep in his arms. The boy’s head kept hitting his shoulder every few seconds before he lifted it back up in attempts to stay awake.

“You can go to sleep for a little bit, buddy.” Peter said as he sat down on the couch adjusting Tony’s position a little bit so he was more comfortable. “Doctor Strange will be here in a few minutes, but you can sleep until then.”

Tony didn’t object or say anything, just laid his head on Peter's shoulder, this time not lifting it back up. Peter saw Rhodey holding back a laugh as he sat on the couch next to Peter.

“Thank you for the help today, Uncle Rhodey. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to do this without you.” 

“Of course kiddo. I think you did really well with him. Luckily he’s a really easy kid.” Rhodey said.

Peter let out a small chuckle. “Yeah he is. I definitely wasn’t expecting that.”

They sat on the couch for about 10 or so minutes trying to not wake Tony up, when Doctor Strange portaled into the living room. 

“Okay, I have the antidote here. All he has to do is drink it and he should go back to normal.” Strange said handing a small vial of blue liquid to Rhodey.

“Tony.” Peter said softly as he tapped the boy’s shoulder to wake him up. “You gotta wake up, Dr. Strange is here with the antidote for you.”

Tony’s eyes slowly blinked open as he looked over towards Strange. He slowly nodded and wiggled himself out of Peter’s arms and onto the floor.

“Here.” Rhodey said and handed Tony the vile. “Why don’t you go to your room and drink this.”

“What if I don’t want to be old again?” Tony asked in a voice so small it made Peter’s heart hurt. It was similar to the one he used earlier when Peter first found him, but this time it was more full of sadness than fear. 

It made sense to Peter, in a way, that Tony wouldn’t want to go back to being older, especially considering he was in a 6 year olds mind set. To him it probably seemed like this life was much better than whatever life he lived with his parents. Here, for the first time in his life, Tony actually had people who cared about him and acknowledged him, so it made sense that he would want to stay like this, but Peter, well Peter wanted his Tony back, no matter how much fun they had today.

“Hey bud,” Peter said as he crouched down on the floor so he was closer to eye level with Tony. “I know that this seems a lot better than whatever life you have at home, but this isn’t that world. We need older you in this world, I need older you in this world, and I know Rhodey does too.

“We do like having little you here, but older you belongs here, and well quite frankly I don’t know how we’d explain to the world that Tony Stark was turned into a child. And if you remember this when you’re older, just know we love you just as much when you are big as we do now.”

“Promise?” Tony asked, and Peter could tell the boy was holding back tears.

“I promise.” Peter said and held open his arms and Tony fell right into them.

A few seconds later Tony let go and Peter wiped away the tears that threatened to fall down Tony’s face.

“We’ll be out here okay?”

Tony nodded and walked away to his room and Peter heard the door shut a few moments later. Peter tried his best to hold back his emotions. He did have a really fun day with little Tony, but he did want his dad- nope mentor, Tony was his mentor, he wanted his mentor back. 

“How long is it supposed to be for it to take effect?” Peter asked Doctor Strange.

“Only a few minutes.”

True to his word a few minutes later they all heard a groan and Peter could hear the self deprecating mutters that came after. A few minutes later, grown up Tony walked out into the living room with a stride of confidence, but Peter could tell he was embarrassed.

“Okay Strange it worked, go home.” Was the first thing Tony said.

Strange gave him a look but then shrugged and left through a portal. The second the portal closed Peter could see that Tony let his mask fall as he collapsed onto the couch.

“Are you feeling okay Mr. Stark?” Peter asked and gave Rhodey a questioning glance because he had no idea what to do.

“I’ll be fine as long as we never speak of that again.”

“Yeah no can do Tones.” Rhodey said unable to hold back his laughter. “You were way too cute as a child and we took so many pictures. I can guarantee that some are going up on the fridge.

Tony let out a loud groan. “I hate you guys so much.”

“We love you too Mr. Stark.” Peter said flashing a toothy grin. “Oh I should probably call Ms. Potts to let her know you’re all good now.”

That caused Tony to groan once again. “I’m just thankful she didn’t have to see that.”

Peter and Rhodey shared a knowing look. “Weellll.” 

“Don’t tell me.”

“She may or may not have gotten a few pictures.” Peter admitted.

“I’m never gonna live this down will I?” Tony asked as he buried his face in his hands.

“Sorry Tones, but you’re right, you will never live this down.”

Peter and Rhodey high-fived while Tony muttered curses at them while they laughed.

**Author's Note:**

> I'd just like to make it known that I actually have absolutely zero understanding of children. Anyways I hope you all liked it! Come say hi to me on [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/lost-lunar-wolf)!


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